Jules knew exactly when to keep quiet. He had known that Brutus was a devout follower of Gihren Zabi, but that devotion's tendency to be akin to the man's one and only religion was a little troublesome. The glory of Zeon was right and true, but such fanaticism could spell disaster for Brutus on the battlefield.

Astor Grange wanted to calm the beast. Let him. Jules was beginning to realize that, as smart as Astor was, he was perhaps too optimistic about things. Perhaps the reality of war would sink in eventually. Jules just hoped that reality didn't destroy the young man.

Sweat dripped down Jules' face as he looked again at the battle ahead of him. In the name of the Princess, he would fight, and take with him as many foes as possible. Three enemies? Jules thought, in a brief bout of pride, that he could take down so many more.

"I didn't expect to see that coming," Raquel hesitantly commented, more on the Titans' plan of attack than their actual appearance on the field. "The mobile suit engagement, the AEUG ships and our ships... at the same time? Bold even for them."

Her commiseration towards the Axis pilots having to cope with this turn events using machines outclassed by both the AEUG and Titans were only increased by the sight of return flares from the Mudra and explosions spouting from the Zarm.

-Bindra mobile suit team-

"From furball to ****storm--now this is a mess," Pris had to comment as Titans units were swooping into the battle, targeting the furball and ships on both the AEUG and Axis side.

"Doesn't look like the Zarm will even limp away even if we hurry," Swinging her Gaza-C in that direction as recall flares from the Mudra ignited, she watched the transport vessel react to Titan beam fire with explosions about its hull.

Pris then swung her Gaza-C around to Ball's, her machines knuckle buster pointing in the direction of the Axis vs AEUG vs Titan mobile suit engagement. "Cover fire?" She questioned.

"Return flares?" said Lt. Robin noting the bright lights above and the explosions near where the Axis ships were situated as Tyler gave a small whoop at the destruction of one of the Gaza's which quickly turned to warning. "Whoa, incoming!" Tyler alerted them, plunging down as Elijah and Vlad broke right to avoid much of the poorly aimed spray from the Gaza trying to screen the rest of the unit and the Dias they had shot at and returned fire at the Gaza which had turned towards them. A pair of the pistol shots grazed the leg of Vlad's Marasai though, close enough to leave visible marks as they sizzled the paint. "They're already 'frisky'!" Tyler said to Tim in an annoyed voice as he juked back up to avoid a low blast from the knuckle buster and firing back two beams in return. "Nevermind that," said Elijah as he fired a pair of beams of his own at the pink MS, "Axis 'll be moving back towards their ships. Slide down the line and we'll link with Iota and support; let the AEUG go for the moment." With a parting shot he took off down the line towards Iota's position as Vlad and Tyler followed.

Gamma Team

Lt. Te'Litha

The beam from one of the Dias' went high towards New-guy but it gave Nick a wonderful target as he put the peddle to the metal. The neon glow of the high vernier output back-lit the Tiger-striped suit as he briefly killed the limiter to try and close the gap. He brought the 120 Hi-power into position, pointing at Trask, as he barreled in and started to hold down the trigger, laughing as charged.

_________________IAN: (Shaking fist up at sky in a storm of GN particles) Science does not WORK this way, Setsuna!!!

A lock on alert flashing to his side Alex turned just in time to guard against Irene's shots, 1 beam splashing against the shield while the other flashed by. He'd been so focused on getting the Nemo Cannon he neglected the other teams nearby. Pulling away as the other beam flashed by Alex noted Marco giving him cover and Irene firing at the Nemo joining its partner against Orsino.

"Two can play that game"

Making a mental note of the Nemo Cannon's position, Alex also took after Thibaut as he trained the 120mm on his target before opening fire with a stream of rounds.

Sophie had little time to congratulate herself for scoring the hit on Amecas' Gaza as he soon regained control of the MS and made an attack on her. He was coming in hard and close, so she had very little time to react. Activating the verniers she flew 'down' from the direction the Axis machine was flying at her and activated the vulcan phalanx in the Rick Dias-C's head. A stream of 55mm rounds poured out at Amecas' Gaza while the internal alarms were screaming that the Rick Dias had taken damage. Quickly glancing at the readouts she saw that the left arm had been severed from the elbow down.

- Buxoro Team -

"They're already 'frisky'!"

Tyler was right as he had to maneuver to avoid all of the beam fire coming at them from different directions.

"Nevermind that, Axis 'll be moving back towards their ships. Slide down the line and we'll link with Iota and support; let the AEUG go for the moment."

Tim took off after the rest of Buxoro Team, flying the tail end to make sure any of Axis MS didn't attack them from behind.

Gamma Team

The beam blasts coming his way went wide, but kept Aaron on his toes none-the-less, they were shot from a cannon after all. Seeing that Nick has singled out one of the Rick Dias, he thought it prudent that the other Rick Dias should be pealed away from his partner.

"Hey Hepburn," he called out over the comm. Since they weren't too far off it shouldn't get too messed up by minofsky interference, "Let give Nick some breathing room."

With that said he opened up his 120mm Hi-power on Wes' Rick Dias, firing three bursts for a second each.

'When the hell are we getting out of here Jason,' he thought as he took his figure off the trigger and started maneuvering into another position. Standing still would get you killed out there.

_________________"Kamille, if it wasn't for you...." Jerid's last words

Iota Team’s shots hit their marks dead-on this time, easily slicing through the Zarm’s insufficient armor and in some cases exiting out the other end. Explosions blossomed out from the ships wounds as fuel, generators, equipment, and the like were ruptured virtually everywhere on the relatively small vessel. The CIWS fell silent as the Zarm bent and warped from loss of hull integrity. There was no chance for any organized response anyhow - Grace’s final shot had plowed through the bridge, instantly killing the entire command staff. What was once the refit frigate Zarm had sunk with all hands, its remains fast becoming a constellation of molten-rimmed chunks.

- Zarm Team -

The single Nemo slid behind Zarm Team and had already resumed firing by while the Gaza-Cs were in mid-turn. The hastily-aimed nature of Kou’s shots didn’t score any hits, but they had what might have been the desired effect; the gap between the two Gaza pairs widened, and indeed the pair of Tek and Lebim even backed off somewhat.

Norlan, however, wasn’t nearly as hesitant as his commander. “Bastard! It’s only a matter of time before we tire you out!” he howled, gunning his MA-mode Gaza-C directly at his opponent while firing the beam guns. Kelof wasn’t far behind, also firing. His first shot clipped a little too close to Norlan ahead of him, but he awkwardly adjusted his heading to more faithfully direct beams at the Nemo.

“Kelof, Norlan! Keep some distance!” Tek’s orders were of no use; his subordinates had their blinders on. The best he and Lebim could do was continuing their knuckle-buster volleys while now moving laterally in a wide circle around their target.

Iarocci’s sensors picked up the incoming shots just barely in time for him to slow down. Irene’s first two shots sailed harmlessly in front of him. Iarocci turned to face his new opponents just in time to notice her second two shots. He kicked his verniers to take his Hizack on a leftward strafe, but knew instinctively that he wouldn’t have time to dodge both, so he ejected his forearm shield directly at the shells.

And just barely in time, too. The bazooka shells impacted his discarded shield less than a dozen meters away from his mobile suit. The Hizack was rocked by the explosion, and Iarocci’s HUD screamed that his left arm had lost some functionality.

Komorowski had problems of his own, as Wales opened fire with a torrent of beams. The young Titan attempted to evade by gaining altitude, but he wasn’t fast enough; the beams sheared off his right shoulder shield and his Hizack’s head, forcing him to rely on the backup cameras.

Rick Diases… Iarocci had never faced one himself, hence his misjudging their interception speed. Everyone knew, though, that the Dias was AEUG’s deadliest mobile suit aside from their notorious Zeta Gundam.

“Close in with Herakles Team! We’re the rearguard, ladies!” Iarocci accelerated again, all three members of the team hitting their thrusters to the limit of a Hizack’s abilities to shorten the gap between them and their counterparts from the Herakles. Komorowski fired a stream of return fire at Wales over his own heavy breathing, while Chandekar contributed short bursts at the same target.

Lt. Delta and the bridge crew were stunned when the Zarm fire-balled and died in front of their eyes. Seconds seemed like minutes before anyone spoke. "Sir?" a helmsman finally broke the silence.

The lieutenant's fear turned to anger as he addressed his communication officer, "What the hell just happened!?"

"M-Marasais. Three of them," the young officer stuttered. It was a still a bit of a distance but an easy jump for a mobile suit. Scenarios from the academy ran through Lt. Delta's mind but none covered piloting a metal box with engines.

"Keep our distance and recall our Gaza team!" he ordered as his voice broke with nervousness. The comm officer turned back and punched up a few buttons which launched flares.

- Iota Team -

Lt. Grant was pleased when he saw the Zarm crumple on his monitor but his stone face showed no emotion. Only when he noticed a second large object appear on his sensors did his eyes flare up. He took a quick glance at his low propellant level after regrouping with his team.

A second transport ship?..dammit..it took about half our propellant to get this far.

Deciding that a run at the second ship was too risky he opened his comm to the Kirov even if the interference was heavy, it was protocol. "Iota team to Kirov. Axis transport ship destroyed. Repeat Axis transport ship destroyed. Returning to refuel."

Switching to his team only channel, he cleared his throat "Lets head on back. Those Gazas from the ship will probably be returning and we're too deep in enemy space with low propellant to handle them,"

It was far, far, far away from being Wes Curren’s first time seeing incoming machine gun rounds. Aaron’s bullets streamed in, Wes made a rightward weave that evaded the bulk of it without sacrificing much of his forward momentum. A single round penetrated into the back of his suit’s torso, but a quick glance at his HUD assured Wes that nothing important was damaged.

Adam Trask was ahead, though, and was receiving the attentions of an especially aggressive Barzam. One that was black with primal red tiger stripes…

Wes had seen that color scheme before, in the hell of the Hatte shoals. It was on a mere Hizack then, but one that had nearly killed him despite the glaring performance gap between Hizack and Rick Dias. If this was the same wild pilot then he’d obviously upgraded to a better MS. If it was the same guy who’d been so dangerous in just a Hizack, then there was no telling what he could pull off in the much stronger Barzam.

In light of that possibility, Wes’s instincts had him ignore the normally-colored Barzam shooting at him and give Trask a hand instead. He kicked his thrusters up a notch and changed his approach angle to lunge directly at the tiger-striped Barzam. His cockpit filled with the static-corrupted laughter of a madman as he raised the beam rifle and popped off a pair of shots, all the while his hands itching to have his Dias draw its beam saber.

- New Yark Team -

The incoming fire from Alex and Criss was the last straw this time; Thibaut had to peel away completely from his CO, swerving high upward and turning to face the other Hizacks. One of Criss’s beams scorched dangerously close the front torso armor, leaving a long cosmetic burn from shoulder to shoulder. Were he breaking away from any pilot other than Hard AE this action would have come with second thoughts, but Hard AE was more than capable to tangling one-on-one with a Hizack. Thibaut continued to climb as he returned fire primarily at Criss, but also angled sharply to the right to bring himself closer to Mart and Stamble.

Mart and Stamble had the same idea and did their part by circling leftward, firing their beam rifles at the same target as Thibaut.

Hard AE careened forward, neither he nor his Hizack opponent wavering. A melee battle was inescapable… and indeed had begun. As soon as the two MS came within striking distance of one another, Hard AE lit his beam saber and swiped horizontally at his enemy’s midsection with his trademark howl.

Gritting his teeth and firing all his thrusters at maximum in reverse, Bernard spins his Dias to avoid most of the axis shots, one beam tears through the right forearm. The loss of hydraulics affects the grip losing a beam pistol in the process.

Seeing the Gazas withdraw, he decides that it's a good time to meet up with his squad.

Irene rushed to assist Wales in between several beam shots around her last position. For sure someone was targeting her but the shoots were fired too late and too far. For few moments she put some effort zig zagging to shake anyone following her but nobody seemed to chase her. Just then she saw her last bazooka shell erupted into fireball in the distance. That same moment she spotted Wales went after the Nunavut Team after firing his beam few times to another direction while the Hizack trio making a run to the other Hizack/Barzam team.

“Wales, push it! Go for the kill, don’t let them rejoin with the rest!”

She climbed passed Wales and to fire another salvo from her bazooka to disrupt, if not altogether annihilate the threat or simply covering for her wingman. Iarocci didn’t retaliate and gained so much speed it’s hard to get a solid lock on him. It wasn’t the case for Komorowski and Chandekar, each got 2 bazooka shells aimed precisely at them and their likely flight path to Herakles.

Wales grinned as two of his shots found their mark and prepared to fire at the hizack again to finish it, but incomming fire from the hizack in question and its wingman forced him to evade, dodging the first salvo and nearly avoiding being hit by the second, a couple of the 120mm shells striking the 'collar', mere inches away from the right side of the mobile suits' head.

that was way too close for comfort.

“Wales, push it! Go for the kill, don’t let them rejoin with the rest!” irene ordered

"go faster? sure, anything for a lady" he replied with a grin, before increasing the thrust level to maximum.

as the red mobile suit rapidly closed the distance to melee range, the head cowling popped open and the phalanx guns fired a short burst, aiming for Chandekar while the mobile suit itself homed in on Komoroski

"hey a**hole." wales called out to the titans pilot on an open channel "THINK QUICK!" he lunged forward in a stabbing motion, simultaneously activating the beam sabre as he charged

--

as best he could, trask juked all over the place to avoid another stream of incomming fire, the added bulk of the cannons making the task more difficult than normal, but for the most part he avoided any serious damage save for the armour on the left leg and the knee servo getting damaged by repeated impacts

why hasn't that thing run out of ammo yet? he thought to himself as he finally got a clear look at the enemy suits attacking them, barzams, modified ones, though one of them sported a red/black tigerstripe pattern both were equipped with a large chain gun with two massive ammunition drums on the shoulders.

well, that answers that. he added bitterly we've got to finish them off quickly or we'll get shredded, litteraly. even gundarium has its limits.

edging himself behind wes, trask took aim at the second normal coloured barzam with the beam cannons while he drew out his bazooka, and disengaging the recoil compensation for the shoulder verniers, as wes began his attack run he veered 'down' and right then opened fire, the combined recoil from the cannons sending the kanone dias into a backflip and positioning him somewhat 'underneath' te'litha, whom he promptly fired a scatter round at with his bazooka.

-Hamburg team-

a blinding flash got paris' attention as the Zarm was sunk, before she could fully understand what happened she noticed the attacking Gaza C's fall back

"Al, they're withdrawing" she informed her team mate, "lets help the Lt and regroup", keeping an eye on her previous opponents to make sure they didn't try to shoot her in the back, paris maneuovred her nemo towards uraki's position, during this brief period of calm however she thought of something

"Anything from the Mandra yet?" Finalan asked restlessly as the battle seemed to heat up.

The comm tech shook his head, "The interference is thick, we haven't gotten a response yet."

Finalan's next thoughts were lost by a series of flashes to their left as the Zarm seemed to explode in an instant. It had been closing with the Endra class cruiser, leaving the Mudra no time to react as it was pelted with debris from the dead transport. More alarms and lights began flashing.

"Get me a damage report!" Finalan commanded, again showing more panic than he intended. Calm down, Oswald... He thought, rubbing a hand over his face and looking up. Nothing in view of the bridge appeared to be damaged, although the debris of the lost transport clouded their view. Unable to see anything, and with no Titan suits swarming over them, the gunners had ceased fire. The debris was rapidly spreading out, but not quickly enough to calm Finalan or those of his crew who could see out...

==================================================================

-Mudra Team-

For an instant, Amecas thought he could get the cannon armed Rick Dias. That thought disappeared as the Rick Dias dropped downward, its' head flashing with vulcan fire, and he noticed the other machine fire a beam at him. Amecas slammed on the controls to dive toward the Dias and avoid the fire from both at once, managing to avoid the beam, but wasn't quick enough to get away from the steam of vulcan fire, and the damage to his fragile Gaza-C was already too great. Whether it was due to the impacts of the 55mm rounds or the strain of the attempted movements, what was left of the lower half of the Gaza-C snapped away from the upper torso and promptly began to break apart. Balance totally lost, the upper half tipped into the steam from the phalanx guns, sparking from the impact of numerous rounds. Already badly damaged, the main thrusters finally exploded, one a second after the other, killing Amecas instantly and vaporizing almost everything that remained of the pink mobile suit.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Smith was charging into the face of four Marasais, already accepting that he likely wasn't going to get out of this. However, he didn't expect to see several beams snap past his Gaza-C from behind, which the Titans juked to avoid in addition to his own fire. His Gaza was hit by a beam from behind that nearly severed the right arm and knuckle buster, but somehow continued to fly straight, as if nothing had happened. This so amazed and stunned Smith that he didn't notice the pair of shots from one of the Marasais, which squarely pierced his Gaza-C through its chest and exploded, sending chucks of the machine flying off into space.

Marvin saw Sophie take out the Gaza-C and promptly scanned around, only to see nothing particularly close to them. He moved closer to Sophie's machine, getting a good look at the damaged left arm, which worried him as he triggered the radio. "So, uh, what should we do now?" He asked, since had had no idea himself. Eddie and Bernard had to be around somewhere, but there were also enemies not that far away...

Jules felt a sudden gasp escape his throat as the flash of the dying Zarm filled his vision for a split instant. The battle was starting to get out of control. He knew it. The other transport would be in peril. At least a few Gaza-Cs had already been shot down.

He couldn't sit idly by for much longer. He quickly keyed his comm, knowing full well that he would be interrupting any response Brutus would have for Grange's last message.

"Brutus, the battle is getting worse, and I can't seem to get anything from the Mandra. If we hit the enemy now, we might be able to do some real damage."

Trask would find that he wasn't up against two suits.. but three. Jack's Marasai, though somewhat antiquated at this point in the war was still something to behold. The rough and tumble pilot and mobile suit came in from Trask's 12 o'clock high, almost right on top of him. With a bright thruster flare trailing the suit, the Marasai ignited it's two beam sabres and rushed Trask with almost reckless abandon.

"Go chew on the Zeon, fool! Git outta here!"

Jack didn't want to kill these two though.. he wanted to save three splashes on his cockpit hatch for Wolf, Sven, and Darren's suit. The last, he hoped would come to his senses in time to get himself killed for a stupid reason.

"GIT!"

_________________TRANS AM!Yes, it's a V8.Yes, it was a Trans Am before there was "TRANS AM."Yes, it's mine.

Chandekar’s HUD screamed about incoming fire just in time for him to react to Irene’s bazooka attack.

Unfortunately, he reacted wrong.

He brought up the forearm shield to block the first shot, but underestimated the devastating power of a direct bazooka hit. His entire Hizack was rocked by a reverberating boom that spiraled the mobile suit out of control for a brief moment as the second shell sailed right through where Chandekar would’ve been moments later.

Chandekar’s vision, which had momentarily blacked out, regained focus to reveal that his helmet visor was cracked, and he could feel blood in his mouth. He muttered in furious Urdu as he sought out Irene’s Rick Dias and opened fire in five-round bursts, his Hizack’s mobility compromised by the damage.

-

“Psiakrew!” hissed Komorowski, as his cockpit indicated more incoming bazooka shells from the Rick Dias he wasn’t targeting. He stoped firing the machine gun to deal with it, and with a mix of vernier feathering and AMBAC limb movements he sailed “under” the bazooka rounds only to have Wales’s Rick Dias bearing down on him, almost on top of him.

The cockpit display screamed as vulcan rounds riddled the mobile suit’s legs and waist. The warning alarms were drowned out by a holler of “Hey a**hole” in an accent Komorowski couldn’t quite place, “THINK QUICK!”.

Komorowski, in his panic, didn’t think to draw his beam saber, instead desperately blazing the machine gun at the Rick Dias that was taking up ever larger shares of his panoramic monitor. He was still moving forward when Wales’s beam saber plunged into the Hizack’s left forearm and straight through into the middle of the torso.

The Titans pilot was already dead at this point, so he could hardly have cared about the left forearm splitting at the middle and allowing the still-chattering machine gun to go free, the recoil pulling the arm to the right. The Dias beam saber sliced through the right side of the Hizack’s torso due to the suit’s continued movement, and the dead hulk disconnected from the AEUG machine in two halves just barely connected by a strip of left torso armor. The recoil from the machine gun pushed the lifeless torso, bending that last strip of armor until the suit’s backpack met the rear skirt armor in a reverse doubling-over just as the propellant tanks started to rupture, shattering the remains from the inside.

“We’re too spread out,” Trent lowered the field glasses momentarily to push himself away from the viewports. Behind him, Fyodor Pavlichenko confirmed Iota Team’s return flight. “Get Bate’s team out there to support our left flank,” continued Trent as he reclaimed the command seat, “We’re too thin there. I want Nunavut’s second team in there while they’re at it”.

- Salamis Kai-class Nunavut -- Mobile Suit Deck -

“That’s our cue,” murmured Ltjg. Faisal as Nunavut Team 2’s launch order came in. He grimaced as his Hizack shot forward on the catapult. His teammates’ Hizacks were soon on his tail, and the three sped across the distance between the fleets to support Herakles Team and Nunavut Team 1.

The order from the Kirov went to the Kalinin, and Nguyen promptly had it sent through to Bate's team hanging below Echo's formation.

"Crap..." Bate muttered after confirming the orders and before switching to his team's channel. "We're going in. Close formation and follow me, and stay the hell together." He said, slowly moving his Marasai forward. The Hizacks slipped foward, most awkwardly, until they had something close to proper formation spacing. Craig and Hicks were to his left, Runnels and Sunoue to the right, as Bate slowly began to speed up to normal crusing speed and gently angled toward the left side of the battle zone they had been ordered to. He was in no rush to get there, and the way the bridge crew relayed their orders, it didn't sound like things were too bad over there. Not that that fact made Alpha feel any better about the situation...

Echoes were heard inside the cockpit as Irene's Rick Dias sailed through few scattered parts from the battered Hizack. She spent no time to evade, this one she needed to finish up quickly before she could make her run agaisnt the Barzam. Timing was crucial and so she braced herself when Chandekar fired a short burst which hit her mobile suit sporadically. Distinct pounding sound was heard as one round hit the Gundarium Gamma on the torso, but without any penetration.

Chandekar’s Hizack was low on mobility and that one was obvious. Like a hungry carnivore against a wounded prey, the red Rick Dias chased the green MS ferociously. The twin phalanx gun firing for few short burst against the Hizack at close range before she braked from pursuit and pointed its main weapon toward its target. It happened instinctively, at first she thought she didn’t want to get caught in the explosion that might occur but she also realized if possible she didn’t want to take life unnecessarily. This is not OYW she reminded herself. Unfortunately the Hizack didn’t look like giving up any time soon.

"Time's up," she said and the tip of the beam pistol glowed for a fraction of second before launching two beam bolts toward Chandekar.

Lt. Emmers tries to maneuver his damaged Gaza and swing around to meet up with Ens. Moore, who flew between Aldrich and Kell. As Emmers reaches for Moore's Gaza to establish communication the Gaza's head bursts open as Paris' beam rips through.

Moore's Gaza floats by dead, the remains of the head piece is illuminated by the flares. Emmers stares at where Moore used to be. His heavy breathing drowning out Kell's inquires of what to do.